Dick Advocaat took charge of his first game from a distance with Fred Grim overseeing the match from the dugout. An attacking line-up was selected with Nathan Ake making his debut while Quincy Promes sat just behind Vincent Janssen up front.

The game was meant to be a friendly, but Younes Belhanda had other ideas with the Moroccan attacker somehow not punished for two shocking challenges, firstly on Matthijs de Ligt and then Wesley Hoedt.

Netherlands wasn’t scared by their opponents and they played the better football in the opening stages. Promes had already scuffed one chance by the time he opened the scoring on 22 minutes. Jens Toornstra swept an excellent ball to Memphis Depay, who fooled Nordin Amrabat before setting up Promes to fire in the opener. Before the break it could have been 2-0 but Janssen twice saw efforts kept out by Moroccan keeper Munir.

Morocco started the second half on top and Jeroen Zoet had to divert a Sofiane Boufal shot before Manuel da Costa headed the resulting corner wide. Moments later another corner led to Ake almost diverting the ball into his own net.

On 67 minutes, Netherlands doubled their lead through Janssen, who controlled a Promes cross with his chest before slotting the ball into the net.

From that moment the game seemed to be comfortable for Oranje, but two minutes after the 2nd goal, a long ball over the top caught out De Ligt and he brought down Walid Azarou. Referee Mahamadou Keita who had kept his cards in his pocket throughout the night produced a red card to send the 17-year-old off. He is now the youngest player to ever be red carded for Netherlands, a record which was previously held by Johan Cruyff.

Mbark Boussoufa fired the resulting free kick past Zoet to bring Morocco back into the game with twenty minutes left. The hosts then piled on the pressure as they looked for an equaliser but Netherlands stood firm and almost added a third before the end, but Promes could only fire Wesley Sneijder’s pass wide.

A first win under the new leadership of Dick Advocaat for Netherlands, who now head back to Rotterdam for a friendly with Ivory Coast on Sunday before the World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg a week on Friday.